Living through music

I've always listened to alot of older music, i am going back to before i was born and soaking it all up, all things 60’s and 70’s. Music sounds so fresh and simple (as it basically was back when it originally came out). Lots of acoustic guitars and harmonicas and pianos. Simple and beautiful. Finding "new" old music is so cool. Its like a load of new release's which you don't have to wait for to come out. You can't beat a bit of Bob Dylan, John Martyn, Simon & Garfunkel, Steven Stills, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young or The Doors. You can also hear the influence they have had on the artists of the current day who grewn up with them. All music comes from an influence, there are very few leaders or style makers. But I think that without influences you get lost, most successful songwriters will happily agree with this. The drive to be original has often lead bands to just be avant garde atonal noise, which has its place and underground following but you can't sing along to it or recall a certain time in your life as soon as the intro starts playing. There is, and only will ever be, one Dylan, Marley and Hendrix. Everyone else follows, but these are worthy mentors to follow in the footsteps of in my opinion.

I really feel like i have rediscovered what music is all about since being away, i have immersed myself with it. I've become obsessed with melodies as well. Skipping buying lunch just so i can justify buying that cd of the guy/girl i just saw live, making going to see shows my number one priority. I always knew it was important to me, but not as much as I now realise. Music has been something that has comforted me, motivated me, its been my one continuous friend for the past 7 months and its rarely let me down. Daily life is about being cerebral, plodding along living what is the reality of life, bills, rent, work, etc. but music is such a great outlet to just be emotional and let true emotions flow, to interpret something just through feeling... to be creative. There is no price which can be put upon that. However, on the downside it hasn't helped my tinnitus and my iPod has absolutely NO space left. Its been amazing though, i am getting to see all these bands that i've always wanted to see, who either rarely come to the UK or never have. For example, i just bought a ticket to see Ani DiFranco in LA on september 23rd - i've always wanted to see Ani!! I have heard from others that it is very inspiring to watch her, so for all these things i am so lucky.

Music is all about playing live, if you can't cut it on stage, you are nothing you are not a credible musician. The beauty of the music world is relentless touring, the opportunities, the people, the new countries, the road trips, the sights, sounds and smells of being "on the road" this is where an artist should wear their heart on their sleeves and get their real feedback, through packed out shows or people coming up to speak to you after the gig, not record sales. I recently read about further reports of the music industry crying sour grapes over the illegal downloading of music. Sure as an artist who has just released my album after many years of writing, playing shows and working to get that album out, it would be a dream come true to have your first album out on the shelve of your local HMV, and if the early to first/second quarter sales figures were less than expected (this is the sign of a "failure" according to the music industry!!?) then you would be heartbroken and probably also dropped from your contract. However, why does the music industry still fail to realise that the most powerful marketing tool is having listeners downloading this music for free? It has rejuvinated music and made it interesting again, and i am not just talking about the DIY-artist age we are experiencing. But the variety and freedom to explore music that we have through file sharing. Its about discovering an artist that you would never buy the album of but you download it and it grows on you. you end up becoming a big fan and then next time they release an album you like them so much you want your own hard copy or when they come to your town on tour, you are the first one at the front of the queue for a ticket and some merchandise. If one person says how much they enjoyed the gig or a particular song and then buy a cd off the back of it, then that would make my night x100. After all you can't download a ticket to a show or t-shirt at the end. You can't download a pint of beer or glass of wine at the bar either (?). So I says, why not give the music away for free (not literally) but don't make a song or dance about your mp3 turning up on millions of hardrives, don't spend millons trying to encode cd's with copy control encryption which stops 99% of music fans putting it on their iPod's, which is what they buy it to do. This is coming from someone who wants to work in the industry, so i am not rubbishing the entire thing. Maybe the music industry start a new chart which is based upon the amount of illegal downloads to computer hard drives around the world!? :)

I love going to gigs and watching live music, the smaller the venue often the better, I love getting there before it starts, getting a good spot and standing looking at a blank lit stage and just waiting in anticipation. I love watching them set it all up whilst the PA system plays. I always think about where the artist is, what they are doing backstage - warming up, getting in the zone. How they prepare, how they warm up, when they write the setlist, what it says. Then when they walk on, the anticipation, how they interact with the crowd. Everything about the performance, what chords they play, how they make transitions from one chord to the other, rapport on stage, stage prescence, etc. It totally trips me out when I see tour lists of shows that musical artists do (like on their websites). They play so many consecutive dates, one town then move onto the next town for the next show the very next day and keep doing that for x amount of weeks. It must be such a blast, travelling to the show, playing, meeting everyone afterwards and having drinks with them, packing up and moving onto the next town and doing the whole exact same thing again the next day. Sure, it would get tiring, it would be tough but to have the opportunity and freedom to be able to go out and do all that stuff rather than traipse to work every morning doing the exact same thing day-in-day out, would be an amazing blessing. As long as you are earning enough money to keep your head above water, its all good. It would be my dream to be able to live a life like this. Then when you do get the odd day off between shows you can relax in the city, see the sights, a bit like a "free" holiday (I think you'd have to haul your ass out of bed and keep the body clock ticking right. Although I am sure most bands will say i see this life through rose tinted spectacles, but i would be so "up for it" and willing to lead this life that it excites me even writing about it). But no, i am not seeking "fame and fortune" i don't care, all i want in the world is to play my music to people who listen and will enjoy it. If it one of my songs ever evokes an emotion within someone or they relate a theme or scenario from it to something in their lives, then i will be forever happy.
There is a lyric in a song by Jason Mraz where he says "fame is nothing more than loving someone and fortune is nothing more than loving what you do". Its so true, fame is not something you are, it doesn't make you good, it is nothing more than someone else loving what you do, no matter how big or how small everyone is famous. Fortune is where its at, fortune is what artists do it for, the love for their craft, always challenging their last song, performance or recording. Since being away and seeing so many places, and also working as a temp and seeing so many different work environments and meeting so many people within at these places - i maybe realise that i am not sure i actually want to settle anywhere. Not for a few years anyway. I want to be able to regularly drop out of the life i know and the person everyone else knows me as and experience different environments, i think by doing so it keeps you enthusiastic and creative towards your "real" life. As a temp i see countless numbers of miserable people working away, wasting time - doing something they don't enjoy - i won't let that be me. If its all about money then money isn't THAT important to me.

By the way, Arctic Monkeys are the latest BIG thing over here, all these style-ite moody looking bohemian kids are going crazy over them. According to rolling stone magazine its the same in the US too. I think its great, here are a bunch of pale spotty faced northern very working class lads singing in a northern accent about VERY (often pretty mingin') english things and the whole world is lapping it up! I love it, except their gig sold out in minutes over here so i didn't get a ticket. The other artist creating waves is Robbie, who had a petition running in brisbane to play another a second date to the one that sold out in literally 5 minutes! crazy, crazy...

I recently secured myself a myspace music page (www.myspace.com/tommilway) in anticipation for when I get my shizzle together. The beauty about this page, and the myspace concept, is that its a relatively easy way to get your name out there among the whole world of music fans. Every band has a myspace page nowadays and by getting a link (by becoming a 'friend' of theirs, like a reciprocal link) you can get their fans to listen (this is the theoretically romantic view BTW). I love myspace you can get lost in it for hours and also discover some very cool people, music and things... try it one day when you have some spare time (ok, none of us do these days, so make time) and start on an artist or something that you like and just hop around. Before you know it you'll discover something new and exciting... i promise :)